


A Sushi Carol

by kiirotsubasa



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers R.P.M., Power Rangers S.P.D., Power Rangers Samurai, Power Rangers Wild Force
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-29
Updated: 2012-12-29
Packaged: 2017-11-22 21:49:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/614722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiirotsubasa/pseuds/kiirotsubasa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternative take on how Antonio gets over his fear of morphing in "Something Fishy". </p>
<p>Written in response to the original prompt : "The Sixth Rangers (any or all of them) decide to have their own get-together."</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Sushi Carol

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SailorSol](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorSol/gifts).



> 1) Standard disclaimer : All rights to Power Rangers and characters contained therein belong to Saban. The story is based loosely on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."   
> 2) Apologies for the fan!Spanish. It's not a language I speak, though it has been checked by a native Spain-Spanish speaker. Any errors can be chalked up to the fact that Antonio's canon!Spanish isn't perfect.  
> 3) Thank you, SailorSol, for such awesome prompts. I tried writing them all and liked this story the best, which is why it's my gift to you, but I hope to polish the others up over the course of the year too!

“Okay, Antonio!” He shifted nervously from one foot to the other and cracked his knuckles. “You’re good as gold. You can do this.”

He started towards the door before stopping mid-step, pirouetting on one foot and striding away. “ _No puedo. Simplemente no puedo._ ” He continued walking, and muttering to himself, when a voice called out from behind him :

“Hey!”

Antonio kept walking.

“Hey! Antonio, was it?”

Antonio stopped still.

“ _¡Maldita sea!_ I must’ve been talking too loudly. Again.” He fixed a smile to his face and turned back to face the slightly run-down building. He knew he needed to pull himself together. He knew he needed his usual bravado. But this wasn’t as simple as walking into Casa Shiba and announcing himself as a Samurai. He’d trained for that. He’d earned that! This was…this was different. “Antonio Garcia.” He thrust a hand out in front of him, towards the man who had called him, and shook with vigour. “Gold Samurai Ranger. Pleased to meet you.”

“Merrick Baliton. Lunar Wolf Ranger. Please, come in.”

 

*

 

Willie’s Roadhouse found itself littered with silver balloons and crates of beer. Merrick had thought the balloons a little too on-the-nose, but Alyssa had insisted and he had to admit that it did add some cheer to the otherwise drab interior.

“That’s not why people come here,” Willie insisted when Alyssa tried to convince him to redecorate. “Cold beer. Plate of wings. Game of pool. That’s all my customers want and that’s all my customers are gonna get.”

So, Alyssa was delighted when Merrick had approached her to help decorate for a “Sixth Ranger Social.” And Antonia was speechless when he laid his eyes on the décor for the first time.

“This place is magnifico! Is it yours?”

“More or less,” Merrick replied, taking a bottle of beer from a cooler on the floor and handing it to Antonio. “It’s owned by Willie. He lives with his daughters in Florida now, so I take care of it for him.” A pause. “Are you gonna drink that?”

“Oh, no. I’m undera…I mean, beer’s not my drink.”

“No problem. There’s cola and juice and other things behind the bar. Take whatever you want, it’s all comped.”

“By who? I still don’t really understand what we’re doing here.”

“A man named…” Merrick pulled out a small silver and blue cell phone from his pocket and flipped it open. “…Mentor. Still not used to twenty-first century names.”

“Oh, _fantastico_.”  Antonio walked to the bar and picked up a small bottle of orange juice. “But I still don’t know what this is. Mentor said something about a Sixth Ranger Social.”

“That’s right. We have one every year. All we Sixth Rangers get together and, well…” He indicated the coolers and plates of wings. “Except, that’s not exactly why you’re here.”

“¿Qué quie…What are you talking about?”

“Well…”

“I can take it from here, Merrick. Thanks.”

Neither Merrick nor Antonio had heard the door open and both heads turned to see Jason Scott standing in the doorway.

“And you are..?” Antonio asked, taking a sip from his juice.

“Jason Scott. Gold Ranger.”

 

*

 

“So, I heard that you had a body swap incident,” Jason said as he bowed to Antonio.

“It was a little more than an incident,” Antonio replied, bowing back. He decided he liked the bowing and would try to convince Jayden to make it part of the Samurai training when he got back home.

“And you don’t want to morph anymore?” Jason took up a defensive pose, beckoning Antonio to make the first move.

“I can’t.” Antonio lunged, but his wrist was deftly caught and he found himself being thrown over Jason’s shoulder and onto the mat, which let up a cloud of dust. Merrick didn’t mind bar work, but he apparently didn’t enjoy cleaning the back room that he used for exercise.

“Why not?”

“Did Mentor tell you what I swapped with?”

“No.”

“A fish.”

“So?”

“So?!” Antonio swept at Jason’s legs, but his predecessor in gold leapt over the sweep and somersaulted over Antonio’s head. “So, all of my equipment in fish themed. My Zords. My dagger. All of it.”

“And?”

“And?!? And I can’t morph without being reminded of the fact that I was a fish. A fish who was very nearly eaten before being left in the refrigerator.  That and.”

“I see.” Jason leapt through the air again, taking Antonio to the floor with a foot on his chest. “Gold Ranger Power.” As the gold light cleared and Antonio regained his vision, a grin burst across his face.

“You use symbol power too?!?”

“What?”

“Your helmet! You’ve got a symbol on it. ‘King’.”

“Stop stalling.” Another flash of light and the Golden Power Staff appeared in Jason’s hand, to quickly be thrust against Antonio’s throat. “Your move, Newbie.” Antonio wriggled, trying to break free, but something about the weight of the Gold Ranger armour (or perhaps, Antonio reasoned to himself, the weight of the person inside of the Gold Ranger armour) kept him pinned to the floor. Stretching his arm, he could just about reach his Morpher in his pocket, but as soon as his fingers stroked the hard plastic, he withdrew his hand quickly.

“Just do whatever you need to do,” he said, his hand falling to the mat with a *thud* as he allowed it to go limp. “I can’t help my friends anyway, so what’s the point?”

Jason stepped down and, in another flash of gold light, his armour disappeared.

“Well, you’re no fun.” Antonio drew himself up into a seated position, arms wrapped around his knees, which Jason mimicked. “You know, I was a Red Ranger once. Long before I became a Sixth. And quite early on in my tenure, my Blue and Pink had a bodyswap incident too.”

“Really? What did they swap with?”

“Each other.”

“Wow.” Antonio had to stifle a laugh as he pictured Mia and Kevin swapping bodies. “Did they…”

“You probably don’t want to open that can of worms.”

“Heh. Right.” A pause. “So…what did they do?”

“They…well, they just got on with it. They had a job to do and they did it.”

“Yeah, but…”

“There were no buts. It was hard. They had to adjust to each-others’ powers, learn how to control a different Zord. But they did it. Because they took their mission seriously.”

“Hey, I take my mission seriously!”

“Do you? Your friends are out there fighting right now and where are you? Sitting here with me.”

“Harsh! I was told to come here.”

“Yes, you were. But if you were serious about being a Sixth Ranger, you’d have ignored the invitation and gone to fight your friends. But here you are. With me. A Ranger of Battles Past.” In a single, swift movement, Jason was back on his feet. “I need a beer. Good to meet you, Newbie.”

“My name is Antonio.”

“Of course it is. See you around.” Jason waved over his shoulder as he left Antonio alone on the crash mat.   

 

*

 

“We are the…

“…Rangers of Battles…”

“…Present.”

Antonio now found himself looking at a young man and a young woman who, for reasons he couldn’t quite fathom, couldn’t finish sentences of their own.

“Oh wow…” Gem said, eyes wide in excitement.

“Earth is…” Gemma continued for him, head darting around to take everything in.

“COOL!”

“Um…hi…” At the sound of Antonio’s voice, Gem and Gemma froze in place.

“Oh my God..!”

“…An Earthling!”

Both Gem and Gemma rushed to Antonio and knelt either side of him, staring intently.

“He looks like us!” Gem whispered (quite loudly, even by Antonio’s standards) to his sister. “Do you think he speaks English?”

“He must,” Gemma replied, equally loudly. “Otherwise Dr O would have warned us.”

“True. Hey, do you think that Dr O is smarter than Dr K? Since he’s four letters higher up the alphabet?”

“No, he’s dumber than Dr K since he’s four letters lower down the alphabet.”

“But he managed to make contact with us in Corinth.”

“True, but…”

“ _¡Perdóneme!_ ” Antonio had been watching their exchange in stunned silence, but had finally found his voice. “Who exactly are you?”

“He speaks English!” both twins exclaimed together, grins breaking out across their faces.

“My name is Gem,” Gem said, thrusting out his hand and shaking Antonio’s enthusiastically. “Operator Series Gold.”

“My name is Gemma,” Gemma said, matching her brother’s enthusiasm. “Operator Series Silver. We’ve been asked…”

“...to come and see you because…”

“…we’re Sixth Rangers too!”

“Well, actually, Gemma, I’m a Sixth Ranger. You’re a Seventh Ranger.”

“No. We’re both Sixth.”

“But I got to the others first, so I’m Sixth. You’re Seventh.”

“Well, if we’re doing it like that, then you’re Seventh because your Engine Cell has a ‘Seven’ on it.”

“In that case, you’re an Eighth Ranger!”

“I still don’t know what you’re doing here.” Antonio had a feeling he’d need to speak a lot around these two, even if it was just to stop them from arguing.

“Dr Oliver sent us…”

“…from our dimension…”

“…because you’re having trouble…”

“…with your fighting.”

 “Oh. Well, Dr Oliver already sent someone to try and help me and that didn’t work. So, you might as well save your energy.”

“Hmmmmm. Mr Scott is great…”

“…but he was a Ranger in the past.”

“We’re more interested…”

“…in the present!”

Simultaneously, the twins got to their feet and walked to stand in front of Antonio on the crash mat. From nowhere, Sky Morphers appeared in their hands.

“RPM! Get In Gear!”

Another flash of light. Two more Ranger suits appearing. Antonio tried his best to muster some enthusiasm, but all he wanted was to be left alone.

“Isn’t this stuff cool?” Gem asked, posing with his hands on his hips for Antonio to admire.

“Yeah, you guys look _fantastico_.”

“We created this, you know?” Gemma said, posing to show off her biceps in her suit.

“You did?” Despite himself, Antonio was suddenly interested.

“We did,” Gemma continued. “It was a real pain to hack into the bio-field…”

“…Dr K spent a long time researching it…”

 “…trying to find a way.”

“It’s lucky you were there to see where she’d miscalculated,” Gem said to his sister.

“She’d have puzzled it out without me,” she replied.

“You know…” Antonio interrupted before another fight could ensue. “I invented all of my equipment too.”

“No way!” Gem and Gemma’s helmets disappeared and, again, they rushed over to Antonio.

“Did you have to hack the bio-field too?” Gemma asked. “How long did it take you?”

“Um…I had to learn how to text Symbol Power, if that’s the same thing.”

“Don’t know,” Gemma said. “Can we see?”

“See what.”

“Your tech!” Gem replied. “We’ve shown you ours. We wanna see yours!”

“ _Pienso que no_. I was a fish.”

“Cool!” The twins exclaimed, yet again, together.

“We have a fish Zord,” Gem explained.

“Well, he’s a whale,” Gemma corrected. “He’s very cute! Do you have a whale?”

“No, I have a Lobster. And a Squid.”

“I wanna see!” Gem said.

“I wanna see!” Gemma.

“I wanna see!”

“I wanna see!”

“I wanna see!”

“I wanna…” Antonio had already fished his Morpher out of his pocket and was texting.

“Samurai Morpher! Gold Power!” As his suit materialised around him, Antonio worked to steady his breathing. “ _Bien…Estoy bien…_ ”

“Cool!” the twins exclaimed together.

“You look…”

“…Great!”

“Thanks,” Antonio replied, examining his hands. “I feel…Guys?” Once again, he was alone.

 

*

 

A white gloved hand extended itself to shake Antonio’s.

“My name is Sam. Nice to meet you.”

“Ranger of Battles Future?” Antonio asked.

“That’s me.”

“ _Naturalmente._ Where did Gem and Gemma go?”

“Through to the party, I guess. They’re new here too – they only got their powers a few months ago, so this is their first Sixth Ranger Social.”

“Okay. So, did this Dr Oliver send you to talk to me too?”

“No. He sent me here to take your powers from you.”

“He…You…What?”

“Omega Morpher! Electro Mode.” Sam raised his wrist and began to rev the handle sticking out from his Morpher. “You see, Antonio, your team loses to the Nighlock.” Electricity began to crackle around Sam’s hand. “They weren’t strong enough on their own.” His revving became more intense. “They need a Sixth, and can’t have one if you’re still holding onto powers you won’t use.” He punctuated his last word by thrusting out his hand, sending a beam of electricity hurtling at Antonio, knocking him to the floor. “So, I’m here to quietly take your Morpher and hand it to someone else. To try and save Earth.”

“And I thought Jason had been harsh,” Antonio muttered to himself as he got back to his feet. “Listen, Sam, don’t do anything you’ll regret. Okay?”

“I regret that this must be done, Antonio,” Sam replied, revving his Morpher again. “But you haven’t really given me a choice.” As the blue electricity crackled around his closed fist again Antonio reached for the first thing at his disposal – his Barracuda Blade – and used the sword to deflect the blast thrown at him. As the smoke cleared, Antonia saw that Sam had disappeared and Merrick was, once again, standing in the doorway.

“You look good,” he said, admiring Antonio’s stance.

“I feel good as gold,” Antonio replied, sheathing his blade.

“You coming through to the party?”

“I’ll come back. I have a battle to win first.”


End file.
